Articles by Ronald Rawson

If you’re anything like me you probably always figured that the guys writing these books on the Mafia that we all enjoy, really know their shit. Right? Wellllll……! I’ll take what I read at face value. After all, I’m no expert. I’ll take it at face value until I find something contradictory. Now, that doesn’t mean the new, contradictory, info is correct. Just that it’s something to look into. Sometimes it may just be a…

The Colonel On March 20 1953 I told the papers that slot machine stamps would not be issued for 1954. Soon thereafter I had a direct encounter with a mobster. Costello’s man from New York City took me to lunch at Bob and Jakes Restaurant in Baton Rouge. I had no idea what he wanted but decided to hear him out. He had what I considered a Brooklyn accent, or that of many from New…

Cops in New Orleans have played a big part in the history of the New Orleans Family. I want to try to get some stories in on these guys from time to time in a series I’m calling The Good, The Bad and the Really Bad. Figured it was fitting to go back to the beginning and get some info out on a guy who is more known for who his son was. Death of…

On July 29 1942 at around 6:30 AM a woman’s body was discovered on the side of the road near Tucker’s Corner in upstate New York near Poughkeepsie. The body was that of Mrs. Yolanda Stroncone. She had been viciously stabbed 14 times with what was later determined to be a knife with a 5″ blade and an ice pick. Her car, money and a diamond ring was missing. Robbery was clearly a motive but…

A mixture of New Orleans and Marcello stories, factoids, rumors and sayings. Everyone knows that Mosca’s Restaurant was Carlos’s favorite place to eat. It became Mosca’s in 1946 and is still in operation today. Prior to 1946 it was called Willswood Tavern. The story goes that Carlos liked the cooking of Provino Mosca so much that he gave the place to him and his wife and even built a small house for them to live…

When we last left New Orleans it was April 1st 1869 and New Orleans first Godfather, Raffaele Agnello, had been shot down on Toulouse Street in The French Quarter, or as it was called at the time, Little Palermo. His brother Joseph, known as Peppino, would take over his spot as ruler of the Italians of New Orleans but it would be short lived and Peppino was never quite as effective as his brother. Another…

Niccolo sold pots and pans from his pushcart. Well, not only pots and pans but other useful items as well. But he made his best money on those pots and pans. Since coming from Monreale to New Orleans two years earlier he had done moderately well for himself. First fishing and oystering in a lugger with a friend and then buying his own cart and supplies with the money he had saved up from that….

Today marks the birthday of the Little Guy, The Tomato Salesman. The one time Godfather of New Orleans and the South, Carlos Marcello. When I first started digging into all of the New Orleans history I was of the mind that I wouldn’t focus too much on the Little Guy. I knew about him of course, knew the basic history and the more famous stories and was more than familiar with the JFK angle. I didn’t…

Two armed men entered the shop of Debilia Liacola as Vito DiGiorgio was sitting in the barber chair and James Casaio was playing pool. The gunmen drew pistols. “You take the one in the chair and I’ll take the one playing pool” one yelled. ~ Police believe the slayers trailed the men over the country to assassinate them. ~From the Freeport Journal-Standard in Freeport Illinois, Saturday May 13 1922~ Vito Di Giorgio, arguably the first…

So, as promised, I’ve found some new information on Silver Dollar Sam and want to pass it on to everyone. First, regarding the story on Sam and Al Capone meeting at the New Orleans train station and Sam sending him packing back to Chicago with his bodyguards nursing broken fingers. It appears more likely that the source for this myth would likely be that, yes, a Capone was in New Orleans but it was Ralph…

The young woman sat outside her father’s bar on Rue Bienville. She sat in one of several chairs lining the narrow walkway under the window of the bar that had Zimmerman’s Coliseum Saloon painted in red letters on it. The July heat was bad enough out here but it was much worse inside the bar. Add the exertion of serving customers, cleaning up and moving the crates of bottles around and it just made it…

On this day the man widely considered the first Mafia boss of New Orleans, dies at his sister in laws home on Moss St., in New Orleans. Charles “Millionaire Charlie” Matranga, succumbs to natural causes at the age of 86, at approximately 12:15 am on the morning of Thursday, October 28, 1943. Born in Monreale Sicily in 1857, he is brought to New Orleans, in 1858. Over the next three decades his family are players…

Ever wonder where New Orleans, buries it’s dead mobsters? Probably not unless you have a bit of ghoul in you. BUT, just in case the thought did pop into your head, the NCS and The Crescent Corner, have compiled a handy dandy (kinda) quick reference guide for you to consult. I do have a bit of the ghoulish in me, and have spent hours walking around in NOLA cemeteries looking for some friends of ours….

“Pietro, I thank you and your son for the hospitality and the wonderful food, but this saddens me very much. We are friends and what I ask is not such a terrible hardship on a successful man like yourself. Please just say you’ll pay us the money and things will be as they always have been.” The men sat on the back porch of Pietro’s home. Pietro’s son, Corrado, sat next to him at the table holding a small…